Jack Tatumhttp://www.readthehook.com/taxonomy/term/2964/all
enInterview- Bean Counting 101 with Wild Nothinghttp://www.readthehook.com/65461/interview-bean-counting-101-wild-nothing
<p class="whitespace">Give or take a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Rose_%28guitarist%29">Jack Rose</a> (R.I.P.), Jack Tatum is the most successful musician to emerge from Blacksburg in at least a decade. The early home recordings he made as <a href="http://www.myspace.com/wildnothing">Wild Nothing</a> while studying at <a href="http://www.vt.edu">Virginia Tech</a> had enough melody cutting through the fuzz that it only took a MySpace friend request to attract the attention of <a href="http://www.capturedtracks.com">Captured Tracks</a> head honcho Mike Sniper, who oversaw the release of <em>Gemini</em> in early 2010. That album in turn drew substantial acclaim from <a href="http://www.pitchfork.com">Pitchfork</a>, whose "Best New Music" award can almost single-handedly turn an obscure record into a sales juggernaut, at least in relative terms. Not that it matters&#8211;- no matter how grim the economics of indie rock might get, Tatum's generation will probably be a lot harder to discourage.</p>
<p class="whitespace"><strong>The Hook</strong>: You got started after the music industry had pretty much burned to the ground. Does that make it hard for you to expect financial returns from this?<br />
<strong>Jack Tatum</strong>: It's kind of exciting in a way, because I think if you do it right and are patient, there's still money to be had&#8211;- not that that's, like, the important thing. I think there's still such a big place for live music, and I don't think that's something that will ever go away.</p>
<p class="whitespace"><strong>The Hook</strong>: What was the best reaction you got to the Pitchfork endorsement?<br />
<strong>Jack Tatum</strong>: I think some of my friends set off some fireworks or something, but that's totally dorky and I don't even want to talk about it.</p>
<p class="whitespace"><strong>The Hook</strong>: One of the more interesting perspectives I've read in defense of Pitchfork's enthusiasm for lo-fi bedroom-recording indie-pop projects like yours is that it's a valid cultural response to the economic collapse of 2008, art as a response to circumstance.<br />
<strong>Jack Tatum</strong>: That sounds like reading too much into it. What I do is not really a response to anything. I recorded it the way I did not because the economy was failing and the music industry was failing, but just because I was a 19-year-old kid that didn't have any money to begin with.</p>
<p class="whitespace"><strong>The Hook</strong>: So no matter whether the music industry is broke, or the American workforce is broke, college students are always broke.<br />
<strong>Jack Tatum</strong>: Yeah. But now because the music industry, well, it's pretty much failed at this point, you don't have to record in a studio anymore. I didn't spend any money at all making the record.</p>
<p class="whitespace"><strong>The Hook</strong>: So in a sense the return you've made on that must be pretty substantial.<br />
<strong>Jack Tatum</strong>: Yeah, absolutely.</p>
<p class="whitespace"><strong>The Hook</strong>: One of the things that pops up when I search for you on YouTube is an interview which was sponsored by Converse. Did you hear that they opened up a recording studio in Brooklyn which is free to independent musicians?<br />
<strong>Jack Tatum</strong>: That kind of stuff is bizarre. I guess a lot of it has to do with making your company seem cool and hip or something. Converse tries to give away their shoes a lot. I got a free pair. We played a show, and for whatever reason Converse was sponsoring it, so we got free shoes and did an interview.</p>
<p class="whitespace"><strong>The Hook</strong>: If you had to pick a big soulless corporation to sponsor your next tour, who would it be?<br />
<strong>Jack Tatum</strong>: Hmm, that's a good question. Maybe Reese's?</p>
<p class="whitespace"><em>Wild Nothing <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/music/index.php/wild-nothing/">performs at <del>the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar</del> Trinity Irish Pub</a> on February 10 at 8pm. Tickets are $8 in advance or $10 at the door.</em></p>
http://www.readthehook.com/65461/interview-bean-counting-101-wild-nothing#comments_MusicTrinity Irish PubBlacksburgJack TatumReese'sWild NothingTue, 01 Feb 2011 10:04:51 +0000Vijith65461 at http://www.readthehook.com